University of Sussex graduate wins listings in Budgens and Co-operative stores
with "banquet in a bottle" idea.

Plenty of graduates are finding their first job depressingly hard to come by, so Elouise Mockler admits quitting a hard won role at a marketing agency after just six months was a big decision.

However, the 22-year-old University of Sussex marketing graduate wanted to launch a health drink business – and concluded there was no time like the present.

“I haven’t got kids or responsibilities so I thought, just do it,” she says.

The gamble appears to be paying off: her yogurt, oats and fruit drink, called Yog Oat, has won listings in Budgens and Co-operative stores and the young entrepreneur is also in talks with a number of large supermarkets.

Ms Mockler produces about 200 bottles a week from a farm in Worthing, West Sussex, and is looking for a larger manufacturing facility.

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The drink began as an “experiment” after Ms Mockler found herself skipping lunch and grabbing “fizzy drinks and chocolate for energy”.

“I made the drink for myself,” she says. I just wanted something healthy that would fill me up on the go. But [colleagues] liked the idea, so I started making it for them, too.”

After noticing there was nothing similar on the market, she quit her London job and flat and moved back in with her mother, who also provided £3,000 of start-up capital, in Worthing.

“I didn’t want to move back home, but my costs would have been too high in London,” she says. “I had no experience in the food industry or in starting a business, so I did lots of research, tasting and looking at suppliers.”

Once she had developed the product, finding supermarket buyers simply involved finding names on professional network LinkedIn and then guessing their work email formats.

“I sent them a product presentation and samples and door-stepped some of the smaller stores,” she says. “I’ve always liked talking. I don’t mind hassling people until I speak to them.”

Yog Oat, which Ms Mockler calls a “banquet in a bottle”, is currently on trial in five Budgens stores and four Co-operative outlets. She is also in talks with Morrisons about a deal to list the product in 112 stores.

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